Articles

During a tour of Chinese audio-equipment factories last year, I visited the home of “The World’s Number One Audiophile,” Mr. Ji Hui Li. In addition to owning perhaps $3 million dollars worth of high-end gear ...

The $750 Belles Soloist 3 preamp and $900 5 power amplifier from Power Modules embody the time-honored audiophile tradition of minimalist, no-nonsense electronics. Even their austere exteriors reflect a bottom-line mentality—that form should follow function, ...

Like most vinylphiles, I’ve listened to a lot of fine moving-coil cartridges over the years. The Air Tight PC-1, TAS’ 2006 Phono cartridge of the Year award-winner, is, IMO, the best yet in nearly every ...

Veteran TAS readers and analog aficionados need little introduction to Bob Graham, who has been building variations on his unipivot tonearm design since 1990. That was the year Graham Engineering released its model 1.5—a beautifully ...

The venerable Audio Research Corporation has been on quite a roll of late. Its newest-generation amps (the Reference 210 and Reference 610T) and preamp (the Reference 3), designed as always by the legendary William Zane ...

JR Transrotor of Germany is widely respected for its striking and innovative turntable designs—a reputation it’s earned over the last twenty-five years. Less commonly acknowledged is the Phono II, Transrotor’s one and only phono preamp. ...

Along with Focal and Cabasse, Triangle Electroacoustique is one of France’s Big Three high-end speaker manufacturers. As quality-driven as a Michelin three-star restaurant, it brings to market an extensive lineup of stereo and multichannel models. ...

Speaker design involves science and a kind of combined craftsmanship and musical judgment that one might call art. Judgment comes from the fact that all speaker designs involve certain compromises. Since a perfect speaker is ...

No component since this magazine’s inception in 1973 has troubled me as much as the ASR Emitter II Exclusive, a Germanmade- and-designed solid-state amplifier. Not because it is a flawed product— quite the opposite. This ...

The $3900 DALI Helicon 400 is a medium-height floorstander that uncannily resembles this Danish firm’s premium offering, the Euphonia MS4 [see Issue 146]. It sports the same voluptuous, curvaceous side panels. Internally, it mirrors much ...

I couldn’t have said it any better myself. Actually, that was me— back in Issue 100’s “Best Components of 1994” feature. The Revolution was a great speaker then, and it’s even better now. The revised ...

Fans of American muscle cars understand that when it comes to pavement- pounding and nose-bleeding power, there’s no substitute for cubic inches. That sentiment also applies to loudspeakers. Like pistons under the hood, a multiple ...

Classé Audio’s new Delta Series might have been just another exceptionally pretty face if it weren’t so seriously good. Bringing much of Classe’s flagship Omega Series technology and topology to the table, these new Delta ...